Category: TV Drama; BBC ONE
Date: 21.07.2006
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Liverpool, 1920. Three girls on the edge of womanhood, a world on the brink of change
Lilies by acclaimed screenwriter Heidi Thomas (I Capture The Castle, Madam Bovary) is an eight-part drama series for BBC ONE by World Productions for BBC Northern Ireland.
Tough, sexy, funny and heartbreaking, it details the lives of Iris, May and Ruby Moss - Catholic sisters coming of age in a dockland terraced house.
Familial love sustains them, and their fortunes are bound to those of their brother and their father.
Jane Tranter, BBC Controller of Drama Commissioning, says: "Heidi Thomas is a unique and original writing talent, combining in Lilies a meticulous eye for period detail and resonance, and a wonderfully modern wit, emotional intelligence and warmth.
"Her eight-part take on the 1920s is fresh, bold and entertaining, offering a drama to BBC ONE full of energy, empathy and optimism."
Set in the years immediately following the First World War, Lilies pulls no punches in its storytelling.
It depicts a sensual, vivid and sometimes savage universe - where life is lived on a knife-edge of poverty, fuelled by various kinds of love.
All three girls must make their own way in the world.
Iris (Catherine Tyldesley) makes chocolates, Ruby (Kerrie Hayes) sells (and sometimes models) corsets, and May (Leanne Rowe) - seduced by the trappings of a world beyond her grasp - earns her living as a parlour maid.
In the course of the series each of the sisters tastes passion for the first time, and their lives, newly launched, are changed forever.
Series author Heidi Thomas says: "Lilies features three wonderful emerging young talents who beat off fierce competition to win their first lead roles.
"We needed girls who mirrored our characters: they had to be spirited, passionate, strong and pure.
"We were also looking for luminous, old-fashioned beauty. Catherine, Kerrie and Leanne have these qualities in spades."
Key cast includes the acclaimed actor Brian McCardie (star of Rob Roy, Kidnapped and Murphy's Law) as Dadda, the family's charismatic and mercurial father.
Having married very young, Dadda is now widowed, and his struggle to nurture his unruly children proves both moving and comic.
Daniel Rigby, another sensational newcomer, will star as the family's troubled brother Billy.
Scot Williams is Father Melia, Ian McKee is Frank Gadney and Georgia Taylor (Blackpool, Coronation Street) plays Phyllis Cook, Ruby's friend.
A World/BBC NI production for BBC ONE, Lilies is currently filming in Liverpool for transmission in 2007.
The producer is Chrissy Skinns and executive producers are Heidi Thomas and Tony Garnett (World Productions).
AF
